Common Psychiatric Disorders Share Genetic Underpinnings
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A massive undertaking by the Brainstorm Consortium to analyze the genomes of nearly 900,000 individuals has revealed strong genetic overlap between common psychiatric disorders. These include attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder (MDD), and schizophrenia. Neurologic disorders, such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, appear more distinct from each other.
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@tahasan The researchers quantified genetic overlap across 25 psychiatric and neurologic disorders from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of 265,218 patients and 784,643 control persons and assessed the relationship of those disorders to physical and cognitive phenotypes from nearly 1.2 million individuals. They found significant genetic overlap across different types of psychiatric disorders, particularly between ADHD, bipolar disorder, MDD, and schizophrenia. They also found overlap between anorexia nervosa and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), as well as between OCD and Tourette syndrome.